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Calathriner Communications, Inc.
Calathriner Communications, Inc. is the world's largest communications and entertainment conglomerate. Owning a large band of assets, the company was first founded as the small and debt-heaved Calathriner Productions in 1918 and has expanded throughout history. Assets Calathriner Communications owns a large string of assets. They have been acquired over the years and are the following: Television *HBO *Cinemax *CBS **CBS Television Distrbution **King World Productions **Mark Burnnet Productions *ABC **ABC World News **ABC Sports **ABC Movies **ABC Productions **ABC Kids **ABC Pictures *TNT *TBS *TCM *Cartoon Network *Boomerang *CNN *ESPN *Lifetime *Lifetime Movie Network *History Channel *Biography Channel *Military History Channel *SOAP *A&E Music *Calathriner Records **Buena Vista Records **Touchstone Records **Walt Disney Records **Mowtown Records **Redric Records **Rap Records **Hollywood Records **Calathriner Music Publishing Cinema *Warner Bros. Pictures **Warner Independent Pictures **Castle Rock Entertainment **Warner Bros. Animation ***Looney Tunes ***Hanna-Barbara Productions ***CW Kids **Warner Bros. Home Video **Warner Family Entertainment **Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment **Warner Bros. Television ***Telepicture Productions ***CW Network **New Line Cinema **DC Comics ***Madman ***Vertigo ***Action Comics *Universal Pictures **Universal Studios **Universal Television **Universal Animation *Miramax Films *Pixar Pictures *Dreamworks *20th Century Fox *United Paramount Theaters *Loew Theaters *Calathriner Theaters *MGM Theaters *Columbia Theaters *Warner Theaters Publishing *Lord James Publications **Daily Journal **English News **English Sports **English History Pages **Harper Collins *Time Publications **Time **Sports Illustrated **Fortune **People **GOLF Magazine **Southern Living **Girls Weekly **Woman's Life **Entertainment Weekly **Bird Keeper **BMX Business News **Country Living **Country Homes and Interiors **Fortune **In Style *Hemes Magazines *Home Improvement *Healthy Style *Safety and Reason *Newspaper Calathriner **Daily News **American Editorial **British Telegraph **European Affairs **Wall Street Journal **Rocky Mountain News Consumer Products *Calathriner Movies **Calathriner CDS *Calathriner Computers **Calathriner HP **Calathriner Compaq *Calathriner Foods and Cusine *Calathriner Educational Publications Parks and Resorts *Six Flags parks **Calathriner Parks **Diner Parks **Western Parks **Hollywood Resorts **Stately Hills **Hawaii Hills History Origins and Founding Calathriner Communications orginates from the company Calathriner Films, established in 1903 by Philip Calathriner Sr. Philip was a poor young boy working as a mopper at a early film theater. He had collected enough money to incorporate his company, which would serve as a distrbutor for the Thomas Edision Motion Pictures Trust. By 1907, the company was distrbuting films in eight states, mainly in the eastern seaboard. When the Trust broke up in 1908, the company purchased it for $55,600. It gained rights to Trust produced films and also purchased the rights to Thomas Edison's phonograph. In 1912, the company began production of it's own films. A man named James Chase became auditor for the company and proposed a new monopoly: publishing. Philip Calathriner agreed and in 1916 the Calathriner Publishing Divsion was established, producing such hit magazines as The Rules of Life, Women's Restrictions, and Progress in Europe. Soon the publishing division overshadowed the film division, and in 1918 Calathriner Films became Calathriner Productions. The company was offically incoporated as Calathriner Communications, Inc. on 24 May 1923, regarded as the founding date for the company. Early Years The company continually expanded it's publishing division, and on 23 November 1923 the company Time, Inc. was established by Calathriner Communications as it's main publishing branch. Meanwhile, the film division was falling. In June 1918, the company purchased Republic Pictures, a minor film studio for $98,600. Republic Pictures was merged with Calathriner Pictures to form Columbia Pictures, Inc.. In 1925, Calathriner Communications offered $500,000 each to the owners of sucessfull United Artists Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, D.W Griffth, and Charile Chaplin if they gave their company to Calathriner. They refused flatly, and so in response Calathriner began a insult campaign against UA, which was maintained until the company and it's libary were finally purchased in 1967, long after the original owners were dead or retired. In 1920, the company began it's "Great Expansion" that would last into the 40s. It began by acqiuring the large Universal Pictures for $50,000, tripling it's film division. Columbia Pictures was merged into Universal, to become Universal-Columbia Pictures. In this process, it acquired some 50 theaters owned by Universal. To manage these, the theaters were seperated from Universal and reestablished as Calathriner Theaters, and Calathriner Theater Holdings was created to manage them. In 1923, after it's offical incoporation, Calathriner Communications overfatted even more. On 18 April that year, the company acquired the color-film pioneering company Technocolor for $560,000, and through Universal released the first all-color film, Ms. Wong's Family, a critical success. Using Technocolor technology, Universal's logo and screen openings were upgraded to color on film. Other film companies could not upgrade their black-white logos to color logos, since Calathriner owned rights to that technology. Warner Bros. concluded a contract with Calathriner in 1928 to release sixty pictures between 1929-1933 with color, including it's logos in those films. Later, the 1924 purchase of General Electric made the company's Communications title true, and it acquired rights to more then 1,000 Edison patents. Among these were his film patent, which Calathriner adopted into Universal. More Expansion In 1926, Calathriner Communications began it's expansion into radio by acquiring a run-down broadcasting tower, WRCO-Radio, in Los Angeles for $100 and by 1928 it became the largest and most profitable radio station in Los Angeles. Calathriner also opened WCMI-94 in San Franisico and RCM-98 in Dallas, Texas. By 1929, these stations were the largest in the West. To expand across the country, Calathriner Communications acquired the young CBS radio network on 21 September 1928, gaining control of more then 40 radio stations in Chicago, New York City, Savannah, and St. Louis. By 1933, CBS expanded to 110 radio stations. At the same time it purchased WRCO-Radio, the company began a series of actions that expanded Universal. On 5 June 1926, Universal was reorganized, and the founder Carl Lammele was forced to resign as president of the film division. The new Universal was seperated from direct interaction with the Calathriner Theaters chain, and many legendary Universal films, including Phantom of the Opera, were refilmed with Technocolor. By 1928, Universal had acquired the distrubition and re-release rights to the films of Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin, merging it with it's own archives to create Universal Film Holdings. In 1928, Universal released Show Boat, the first feature of it to have music soundtracks and a film segment of talking, when the lead actress sings. The reason it was able to have sound on this film was because of Western Electric's merger with General Electric before the film was released to become General Electric and Soundtracks, Inc.. Depression Troubles and Recovery In October 1929, the crash of the stock market caused the company's investors to lose $45 million. The company had to borrow money from Capital International in 1930 in order to remain solvent. In 1931, the company was foreclosed by Capital because it could not pay it's debts. Philip Calathriner's son, Philip Jr., ironically the president of Capital, became head of Calathriner Communications and heavily cut down the company's debt by firing over eighty percent of it's employees and selling Universal's pre 1930 film libary to (ironically) United Artists for $5 million on 14 March, 1932. In December 1931, Philip Calathriner Sr. was taken to court by Capital for $45 million in debt. He lost the case and was sentenced to eight years prision and millions in fines. In Febuary 1933, Calathriner declared bankruptcy and sought protection under Chapter I of the US Bankruptcy Code. In May 1933, the success of Calathriner's radio show A Look into our Lives saved the company from complete liquidation. Thus the radio division was heavily invested in and more radio stations were opened in Florida and Louisiana. By 1936, the company finally was able to break from Capital's control and filed sucessfully for the removal of bankruptcy protection, despite the fact Philip Jr. remained the company president. From 1933 on, Universal Pictures would be sidelined, with CBS expanded and invested in. In June 1936, Calathriner Communications acqiuired the rights to broadcast American President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Fire Side Chats until 1940, and these gave it more flushes of money. In March 1938, WCM-WNEV was opened in Boston, the first Calathriner radio station in New England. During this time period, Calathriner Communications began an expansion into television. In January 1939, the world's first television had been created by RCA, and thus began a revolution. In May 1939, CBS had acquired three television stations, W2AB, WMBA, and CBSI. To catch up with rival RCA, CBS opened Hyrton Laboratories in June 1939, and immediately moved into set production and color broadcasting. In July 1941, CBS went onto air as a television network, and would complete it's set-up in 1948. Company Expands Operations Internationally The company also began to expand internationally. In May 1928, Lord James Publishers had been formed in Manchester, United Kingdom from the merger of Calathriner-owned Royal Books with Frederick Warne & Co , the company that produced the famous Beatrix Potter childrens' books. Lord James published many famous English magazines, including Daily Journal, English News, English Sports, and English History Pages. In June 1933, Lord James was the only part of Calathriner besides the CBS Radio division making considerable amounts of money. By January 1936, the massive English book-publisher Harper Collins had been purchased by Calathriner and made a division of Lord James. This brought new publications into fold, including the Daily Telegraph, The Sun, and Royality. By 1938, Lord James was the third-largest publisher of magazines, books, and newspapers in England. In May 1937, Philip Jr. arranged for the acquistion of the Canadian Broadcasting Coporation in Canada, thus assuming control of more then 56 radio stations in Canada, most in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta. It was renamed the Calathriner Radio in Canada. Within three years, Calathriner Canadian Radio became Canada's largest broadcaster of entertainment. In July 1940, Universal Unit in Canada was established to distrbute American films in Canada. From 1926 until 1936, Universal in Germany had been run, showing American films in the German language across Germany and Austria. When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Universal-Germany was moved to Austria, and completely shut down when Austria became part of Germany in 1938. Universal-Germany would not be reopened until 1960. In July 1938, WA-Mexico was opened in Mexico City, Mexico, to broadcast radio shows in Spanish all across Mexico and Latin America. WA-Mexico's shows, including Viva California!, Mia Momma, and Show in Mexico became extremely popular among the Mexican people. By 1942, Calathriner owned 13 radio stations in Mexico and 1 in Gutemala. World War II During World War II, about one-third of Calathriner's employees, including the president, Philip Jr., were called up to serve in the American armed forces. Calathriner organized $111 million in war bonds for the governments of England and the United States, and 11,700 pints of blood was donated by company employees not in the armed forces. During the war, Calathriner acquired RKO Radio Pictures, merging it into Universal and producing such films as A Day in War, My Fair Army Wife, and Child, That Man is Overseas!. In June 1942, Calathriner became the first company in the United States to intergate it's workforce, and by 1943 a quarter of Calathriner, including a member of the board of directors, were African-American. During the War, the dominance of the Nazis in the Atlantic cut off the company from it's publishing divisions in England. The only contacts was by radio waves. In 1943, firm communication with Lord James was finally established. In May 1945, at the end of the war, Calathriner acquired Westinghouse Radio, tripling CBS from 110 stations to 240 stations. This massive expansion would double CBS' power. Post War 40s After the War, Calathriner Communications prospered. In the 1948 case of Paramount Pictures vs. United States, the major studio-theater chains were forced to split into two companies each. Calathriner was not charged however, because of a loophole allowing communications companies owning theaters and film studios that were seperately owned and operated. After the case, Calathiner purchased the film studios' theaters: Paramount's in 1949, MGM's in 1950, and Warner's in 1951. This tripled Calathriner Theaters from 150 to 1,100 almost overnight, most located in the Midwest and Deep South. On 15 January 1948, Universal Pictures was fully upgraded to color-on-film (later replaced by color-on-video in 1984). All films of it from this point on were broadcast in color, including scenes and music sequences. Also during this time, Universal moved into RKO studios and lots in Culver City. In June 1949, CBS was reorganized: 49 of it's 240 radio stations were transfered to television sequence stations, and a further 10 had a third of their programming and time slot switched to television. Further Expansions In January 1948, Calathriner Communications purchased the ailing ABC radio network, creating ABC-Calathriner Networks, Inc and setting it up as a fourth independent television network, after NBC, Calathriner-owned CBS, and the DuMont network. In May 1949, Calathriner purchased a 50% interest in Channel 11 Los Angeles, and gained outright control in 1950. Channel 2 KTSL was purchased in 1949 as well, becoming the largest television station in California. In the late 1940s, CBS-Calathriner offered the first live television coverage of the proceedings of the United Nations General Assembly(1949). This journalist tour-de-force was under the direction of Edmund A. Chester, who was appointed to the post of Director for News, Special Events and Sports at CBS Television in 1948. In May 1950, Calathriner Communications began it's ventures into music, when it acquired the small Gardener Records, reorganizing the company, turning it into Calathriner Records. Soon Calathriner Records competed with Disney Records, superpassing it by 1954, and Disney Records was purchased and merged into Calathriner Records on 6 May 1956. Category:Fictional organizations Category:Fictional companies